Reign of Christ, Year A

Destitute ruler,
one with the hungry,
the naked and the scorned:
may our faith be shown
not in dogma and piety
but in serving you
in the last and the least;
through Jesus Christ, the stranger’s Lord.

Amen.

First Reading

Eye of Heavenby Valerie Mejer Caso
translated by Forrest Gander

On paunchy green hills
in some province of China, you are the one I speak to.
Someone buys a perfume, recalling
that the bones of his beloved are small.
When he writes the note, when he wraps
the little bottle, he takes that into account. So do I.

The subtlest trace of mind against your shoulders
is your true skin. And I press myself to you.
I hear the steady rhythm of your typing, the key
of a borrowed pulse. But what difference does it make, that it is given?
For a while it is mine to use, then your turn, but the pulse originates
in the Child of Heaven who has hearts to spare.

Some day you’ll sink yourself into a frozen
lake where paper ships were torched with the
names of the missing. Some dead, some vanished.
The flames consume all but
the wisp of smoke on which a single word rises
and water licks at the rest. So we are freed from a weight.
Perennially your hills are filled with birds.
Green hills, the deep mosses around your temples.
They, the birds, are your faithful ones.
As I am, naturally.
Faithful to a world unknown,
a world for us alone, paper-thin, and too fragile to speak of.

Second ReadingSunshowerby Natalie Shapero

Some people say the devil is beating

his wife. Some people say the devil

is pawing his wife. Some people say

the devil is doubling down on an overall

attitude of entitlement toward

the body of his wife. Some people

say the devil won’t need to be sorry,

as the devil believes that nothing

comes after this life. Some people say

that in spite of the devil’s public,

long-standing, and meticulously

logged disdain for the health

and wholeness of his wife, the devil

spends all day, every day, insisting

grandly and gleefully on his general

pro-woman ethos, that the devil truly

considers himself to be an unswayed

crusader: effortlessly magnetic,

scrupulous, gracious, and, in spite of

the devil’s several advanced degrees,

a luminous autodidact. Some people

say calm down; this is commonplace.

Some people say calm down;

this is very rare. Some people say

the sun is washing her face. Some

people say in Hell, they’re having a fair.

Gospel ReadingMatthew 25:31-46

“Now the Promised One will come in majesty, escorted by all the angels, and will sit on the royal throne.All the nations will be gathered below. The Promised One will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.The sheep will be placed on the right hand, the goats on the left.

“The ruler will say to those on the right, ‘Come, you blessed of my Abba God! Inherit the kindom that was prepared for you before the world began.I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’

“Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear?When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“Then the ruler will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you have done it for me.’

“Then the ruler will say to those on the left, ‘Out of my sight, you accursed ones! Go into the unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and the fallen angels.I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink.I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Then they will reply, ‘When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’The answer will come, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.”